2017-18 South Atlantic Hurricane Season
The 2017-2018 was an average hurricane season, featuring no major hurricanes. The season had a late start and had a period of no activity during late February to early April. No storms formed in March, the peak of the season. Hurricane Dorothy Hurricane Dorothy formed from an extratropical cyclone in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean on December 7th. At first, Dorothy was a weak tropical storm, but on December 11th, Dorothy began going under rapid intensification after getting its core together and organized. Once Dorothy reached 100mph, the hurricane slowly began to weaken, due to increasing amounts of wind-shear in the area. Dorothy was downgraded to a tropical storm on December 14th, having managed to barely hold onto hurricane status for longer than forecasted, and dissipated over the open atlantic on December 16th. Tropical Storm Christopher Tropical storm Christopher formed from an area of low pressure moving off the coast of South America. The area of low pressure had organized enough to be called a depression on December 21st, 2017 and a tropical storm the next day, however, conditions became too hostile for any further strengthening and by December 24th, 2017, the high wind shear had torn Christopher apart. Tropical Depression 03S On December 27th, forecasters noted an area of low pressure in the middle of the South Atlantic with some convection and the next day, satellite imagery confirmed that the area had a closed circulation. However, 03S entered unfavourable conditions and by the next day, it was torn apart by high wind shear. Hurricane Bea Bea was a minimal hurricane that stayed out to sea. On January 1st, forecasters started monitoring a potential area for development in the South Atlantic and gave it a low chance of development due to the low ocean temperatures, however, Bea managed to form in five days. Originally, Bea was thought to have peaked at 70 mph, but when the KHC reanalyzed the storm, the organization found winds of up to 75mph at its peak. Bea spent most of its life as a minimal tropical storm and the SAHC thought that it wouldn't intensify further. However, on January 9th, 2018, the storm defied all expectations by intensifying into a stronger tropical storm. Due to the low SSTs (around 24-25 degrees celcius), Bea begun weakening, and became a tropical depression on January 11th and dissipated on January 13th. Bea caused 2 deaths due to rip currents. Tropical Storm Ronan Tropical Storm Ronan was a strong tropical storm that formed off the coast of Angola and begun to move southwards. On January 13th, Ronan reached its peak of 55mph and begun to steadily weaken as the air got drier and the SSTs got lower. On January 14th, Ronan was downgraded to a tropical depression and continued to weaken until dissipation on January 16th. Tropical Storm Ethan Tropical storm Ethan formed from an extratropical cyclone that had developed tropical characteristics. The KHC had been monitoring this cyclone for a few days, predicting that it would eventually acquire some tropical characteristics. That happened on January 23rd and the KHC decided that it was a tropical cyclone and gave it the name Ethan, the next name on the naming list. The following day, Ethan reached its peak of 55mph and began to slowly weaken, becoming a tropical depression on January 26th and dissipating the same day. Tropical Storm Sunny Sunny formed off the coast of Northern Africa on February 10th, 2018 and had tropical characteristics from the start and was classified as a tropical depression with winds of 35mph. Once Sunny left the coast, the storm begun to intensify and became a tropical storm the next day. The storm began to move southwestward and reached its peak intensity on February 14th, before entering an area of high wind shear and below average SSTs. This tore the storm apart and it dissipated on February 16th, 2018. Hurricane Kaiden On April 27th, 2018, an area of possible development moved off the coast of Angola where it was given a really high chance of development. The next day, the same area was classified as a tropical depression and had winds of 35mph. The depression failed to organize itself for the first few days of its existence, thus remaining a depression until May 2nd, when it had organized itself enough to classified as a tropical storm and given the name "Kaiden" with 40mph windspeeds. Kaiden continued to organize itself and became classified as a hurricane on May 4th, 2018, however it entered a pocket of high wind shear. Shortly after reaching its peak intensity on May 5th, the storm began to rapidly weaken due to the high wind shear tearing the storm apart. This lead the storm to dissipate on May 7th. Kaiden caused less than 100 million (2018 USD) in damages and caused 3 deaths. Hurricane Naming These were the names used in the 2011-2012 season. No names were retired so all of these names will be used in the 2023-2024 season.